Internal Injury Claims
Specialist Internal Injury Claims Solicitors
Our specialist lawyers will explain how to claim compensation for a crush injury, what you could receive, and the key steps to making a successful claim.
Call 020 7485 8811 today.
“Osbornes fields a specialist personal injury team with standout expertise in catastrophic trauma, regularly securing multimillion-pound settlements in spinal, brain, and amputation cases. “
“Osbornes is a well-regarded personal injury practice well equipped to advise on high-value and high-profile claims.”
Internal injuries are among the most serious personal injuries we handle. Unlike a fracture or laceration, the damage is hidden: bleeding into the chest or abdomen, organ contusion, or torn vessels and ducts. Internal injuries can be life-threatening, are often missed on initial examination, and frequently sit alongside other major trauma.
If your internal injury was caused by someone else, you may be entitled to compensation. Our personal injury solicitors handle complex internal-injury cases on a no win, no fee basis and work with consultant-level medical experts to evidence the long-term consequences.
Table of Contents
Types of internal injury we see in claims
Internal injuries are grouped clinically by the system affected, and the body system and severity of damage drive both the medical treatment and the value of any claim.
Solid organ injury. Damage to the spleen, liver, kidneys or pancreas is typical in high-energy trauma. We see this most often in road traffic accidents, falls from height and abdominal crush incidents.
A ruptured spleen or torn liver can cause rapid internal bleeding requiring emergency surgery. Loss of one or both kidneys is one of the most serious permanent consequences and is usually compensated at the top end of the bracket.
Hollow organ and bowel injury. Bowel perforation, bladder rupture and stomach injuries are common with seatbelt impacts and penetrating injuries. The risk is sepsis and the long-term consequence is often a stoma or chronic bowel dysfunction.
Chest and lung injury. Lung contusion, pneumothorax (collapsed lung), haemothorax (bleeding into the chest) and traumatic asphyxia commonly accompany rib and chest crush injuries. The most severe outcomes can include the surgical removal of part or all of a lung.
Vascular and pelvic injury. Pelvic fractures often involve major bleeding from torn vessels in the pelvis and can cause permanent urological and sexual dysfunction. Aortic injury and other major vessel damage is immediately life-threatening.
Internal head and neurological injury. Intracranial bleeding (subdural, extradural and subarachnoid haemorrhage) sits on the boundary between internal injury and brain injury. Spinal cord injuries can cause permanent paralysis of internal systems including bladder and bowel function.
Where most internal injuries come from
- Road traffic accidents. Seatbelt and steering-wheel impacts, pedestrian and cyclist collisions with vehicles, and rollover crashes are the most frequent causes of solid-organ and chest injuries we see.
- Crush incidents at work. Industrial machinery, forklifts, construction site collapses and falls from height. Crush injuries and internal injuries often appear together.
- Falls from height. Ladder and scaffold falls, falls down stairs in poorly maintained premises, and falls from horseback or in extreme sports.
- Clinical negligence. Surgical injuries to bowel, bladder or vessels during routine operations, missed diagnoses of internal bleeding, and delayed treatment of pneumothorax. These give rise to a separate clinical negligence claim.
- Assault and criminal injuries. Stabbings, beatings and other penetrating injuries can be pursued through a civil claim or via the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.
Do I have grounds for an internal injury claim?
You can usually claim if:
- Someone owed you a duty of care and breached it (driver, employer, healthcare provider, occupier or product manufacturer)
- Their breach caused your internal injury
- The accident happened in the last three years, or you only recently became aware your injury was caused by negligence
If you were partly to blame, you may still claim under contributory negligence. Where an internal injury proved fatal, dependants may bring a claim within three years of the date of death.
What this means for your compensation
Your claim has two parts. General damages compensate for pain, suffering and loss of amenity.
Special damages cover the financial losses: lost earnings (past and future), medical and surgical costs including private revision surgery, long-term care, prosthetics and stoma supplies, and home or vehicle adaptations.
In serious internal-injury cases the special damages usually exceed the general damages by a wide margin.
The Judicial College Guidelines don’t have a single “internal injury” bracket: each affected organ or body system is valued separately. From the 17th edition (April 2024), indicative bands at the upper end include:
- Surgical removal of one lung: £122,850 to £183,190
- Traumatic lung injury short of removal: £80,240 to £122,850
- Damage to chest or lungs with continuing symptoms: £38,210 to £66,920
- Loss of both kidneys: high six-figure award, valued case by case
- Bowel injury requiring a permanent stoma or chronic dysfunction: high six-figure award depending on age and function
- Severe pelvic fracture with permanent urological or sexual dysfunction: valued case by case
Current 18th edition figures (April 2026) are approximately 8% higher and your final valuation will reflect inflation to the date of assessment. Where an internal injury sits alongside brain, spinal or multiple-injury damage, the value of the overall claim can run to several million pounds.
Real-life client stories
- Settlement for a child whose internal injuries followed corrective gut surgery, with ongoing abdominal symptoms attributed to delayed diagnosis and surgical oversight.
- Substantial settlement for a jewellery designer struck by an Uber driver in a hit-and-run who suffered internal injuries affecting her fine motor function.
Don’t miss the three-year window
There is a three-year time limit on internal injury claims. The clock runs from the date of the accident, or the date you first knew your injury was caused by a negligent act.
The date-of-knowledge rule matters most for surgical and clinical negligence cases, where the link between treatment and harm only becomes clear later. Children have until their 21st birthday.
Our experience with internal injury claims
Internal injuries demand technical medical evidence and a team that knows how to build a case around long-term consequences that aren’t always visible.
Our personal injury solicitors have over 50 years of experience in serious-injury work. We instruct consultant-level medical experts across general surgery, urology, gastroenterology and respiratory medicine as a matter of course.
We routinely secure interim payments so urgent costs are met during the claim.
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Rob Aylott is adept at handling sensitive and complex catastrophic injury claims.
Sam Collard, head of cycling, specialises in severe injury and fatal accident cases.
Rob Aylott leads on amputation disputes, often working with major trauma units.
Department head Sophie Davies handles severe injury and fatality matters with a focus on early rehabilitation.
Osbornes fields a specialist personal injury team with standout expertise in catastrophic trauma, regularly securing multimillion-pound settlements in spinal, brain, and amputation cases.
Excellent firm with a good insight into and prosecution of catastrophic PI work handled by an experienced team.
Osbornes fields a solid team of high quality practitioners, active in a range of catastrophic injury claims.
Osbornes prepares cases well; the whole team is good and lawyers there know their stuff.
They deal with people compassionately and take on the right amount of detail. The firm has some really brilliant key solicitors.
The personal injury team is responsive and its level of service towards clients and other professionals is exceptional and high quality
The team offers specialist expertise in cycling-related injury claims and regularly acts for foreign nationals.
It has considerable experience in cases arising from motor accidents and accidents at work
Osbornes is a well-regarded personal injury practice well equipped to advise on high-value and high-profile claims.
Their team includes bright, hard-working solicitors dedicated to achieving successful outcomes for their clients from partner level to paralegal. Their client care is exceptional.
They are a team who are highly respected in the PI sector.
This is an excellent PI team doing a broad range of PI work.
Osbornes’ ‘highly respected‘ personal injury team is experienced in a range of complex, high-value claims, with notable strength in acting for European clients for whom English is not a first language.
Osbornes’ ‘highly respected‘ personal injury team is experienced in a range of complex, high-value claims
Osbornes’ ‘highly respected‘ personal injury team is experienced in a range of complex, high-value claims.
"Osbornes always provides work of excellent quality and the advice is sound."
"The firm has the ability to handle the most sophisticated and complex matters."
"Osbornes is always client-focused and works tirelessly to obtain the best outcomes."
'The team deals with multi-million pound, often multifaceted claims, involving such factors as severe brain, psychiatric, gynaecological and spinal injury, major trauma, amputation and fatality.'
"They are a boutique firm with highly experienced partners who are well-respected in the industry."
"The team at Osbornes deals with catastrophic injury claims with the same professionalism as the largest firms, but provides a much more client-focused experience."
"A really first-rate team, well capable of dealing with the most serious and complex injuries."
"This team has carved out an exceptional reputation in catastrophic injury work."
"Osbornes has impressed me with their personal touch for clients whilst offering a first-class handling of catastrophic injury claims. The partners all have vast experience and are highly respected in their field."
"This is a really excellent personal injury team that can be regarded as one of the major players in the London claimant personal injury market."
"Osbornes have managed to recruit a team of outstanding catastrophic injury lawyers who are at the top of the game."
"They punch well above their weight. The quality of service they provide equals that of any of the larger top-name firms in this area"
Ben Posford is fiercely bright, with an unrivalled passion for his clients’ cases. His encyclopaedic knowledge of all things PI is second to none. His foresight and commercial nous have propelled Osbornes into the highest echelons of the market where they rightly belong.
The firm has an excellent and innovative line in cases involving non-English speaking claimants, managed by recruiting paralegals with multi-language skills – an impressive route for expansion of the caseload.
Great expanding team with expertise and respect in the sector. Led by a commercially savvy and business minded team.
A really excellent group of PI solicitors, notable for their individual quality.’
A niche firm that punches well above its weight in the catastrophic injury sector, borne out by the quality of work they obtain.
This combination of experience and diligence reaps massive rewards for clients, Osbornes being well known in the industry as a fantastic firm.
The Osbornes personal injury team now comprises some of the most technically adept and hard hitting lawyers in the business.
Ben Posford is one of London’s best catastrophic injury lawyers, in my view. He is a real brain injury specialist.
Excellent coverage of personal injury, and traumatic brain injury. There is a real specialism in claimants who do not speak English as a first language.
The group is noted for its expertise in matters relating to cycling injuries, and is the official legal partner of the London Cycling Campaign charity.
To complement its strong reputation for high-value and complex personal injury work, the firm continues to develop its 'excellent and innovative line in cases involving non-English speaking claimants'
"Osbornes comprises some of the most technically adept and hard hitting lawyers in the business"
"A small but high-powered team, dealing with cases of significant value and complexity."
"An excellent firm which achieves fantastic outcomes for clients."
"Osbornes Law have captured the magic of keeping the customer service levels of a smaller firm whilst having all the expertise and power of the biggest firms."
"A superb boutique catastrophic injury firm."
"Really good at dealing with people who have suffered a serious injury."
"Affable and charming with very good client-handling skills."
"superb firm with consummate professionals and a human touch."
Osbornes now has a team of highly experienced personal injury lawyers; particularly strong on high-value quantum cases, workplace accidents and claims involving foreign workers injured in the UK.
The team provides fantastic strength-in-depth for personal injury claims. It is also particularly well placed to service clients from Eastern Europe with specialist native language speakers. From the smallest case to a multimillion-pound spinal injury case, Osbornes has the right staff to manage every claim.
Ben Posford remains pre-eminent in his field with expert understanding of litigating cases of the upmost severity. His experience builds on Stuart Kightley’s running of the firm with recent partner additions of Rob Aylott making a fantastic addition.
A firm going from strength-to strength-which retains its client care whilst being able to offer a full personal injury service.
Beneath Ben Posford’s calm and reassuring presence, which clients love, lies a formidable tactical and legal brain. His experience tells and he gets it right at every stage of the process from arranging the best possible rehabilitation, to ensuring, so far as possible, a polite relationship with those acting for the defendant in order to ensure best and early resolution of the claim.
"Clients say he is very impressive, in terms of both his experience and his management of the personal injury team."
"They have an expanding profile in personal injury and clinical negligence and offer a superb, broad service in accidents abroad, enabled by their recruitment of bilingual legal executives who can guide non-English speakers through complex litigation."
"Solid personal injury practice well equipped to advise on high-value and high-profile claims arising from fatalities and severe head and spinal injuries."
"Offers specialist expertise in cycling-related injury claims."
"Offers specialist expertise in cauda equina syndrome cases."
"An exceptional outfit. They take on difficult cases, fight hard and win."
"Stuart Kightley is an incredibly empathetic solicitor who is very knowledgeable about traumatic brain injury."
"They are an outstanding firm to work with. They are consistently impressive in their work."
"Osbornes often handles claims valued at over £1m, particularly relating to severe brain and spinal cord injuries and niche areas such as cauda equina syndrome and cycling accidents."
"The hard-working, thorough and committed Robert Aylott, who brings significant heavyweight personal injury experience."
"Key team members include the energetic and personable Stuart Kightley who is head of the personal injury department."
"Osbornes has a growing influence and impressive work load and is gaining a reputation for handling complex catastrophic work."
"Catastrophic injury cases head Ben Posford is an excellent practical litigator who offers exceptional service."
"Stuart is also very experienced in advising on fatal accidents and workplace accidents."
Thank you for the hard work and patience and for being so patient with my constant questions.
"I have found Osbornes to be thorough, clear and understanding from the initial call. They do exactly what they say they will and with passion! I would recommend them to anyone".
Very good efficient service. Would not hesitate to use again.
I will use Osbornes for any future needs.
I don't think I could have asked for anything more. One of the best dealings I've had with the legal profession.
Sam was excellent and very professional in dealing with our claim.
Head of the personal injury department, Stuart Kightley is a first-rate practitioner, wholly focused on getting his client the best outcome in a pragmatic, sensible and consensual manner.
As a real specialist in spinal cord injuries, Ben Posford is always looking at new angles on how to maximise his cases.
Ben Posford is one of the best catastrophic injury lawyers around.
They provide exceptional service, great knowledge and understanding of the law, excellent client care and tactical nous
Stuart Kightley is praised for his expertise in catastrophic and fatal claims. Clients say he is very impressive, in terms of both his experience and his management of the personal injury team.
My claim was dealt with efficiently and professionally. Communication was excellent, and timely. Shrewd and sound advice was provided at every stage of the claim from beginning through to completion. On the basis of my personal experience I would strongly recommend Osbornes.
I just wish to thank you for your hard work and successful outcome. I am pleased with the result and would recommend you and your firm to anyone in the future.
Ben Posford … is ‘tactically astute’ and ‘one of the best personal injury solicitors around’.
Ben Posford ‘knows how to maximise the value of the claim for his clients’.
